


Strays

by aintyouafraid



Series: Stucky Bingo 2020 [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And post-TWS they have to put up with a lot, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Sam cannot afford his DC townhouse alone okay, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27852934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintyouafraid/pseuds/aintyouafraid
Summary: Jessica's mama always told her not to feed strays, but she can understand why Sam adopted this one. She has no doubt that he could protect himself – Sam adopts war vets after all – but there is something vulnerable about him.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Stucky Bingo 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831327
Comments: 15
Kudos: 76
Collections: Stucky Bingo 2020





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun with this y'all! I loved the idea of an outsider POV fic, and some of my friends in the DC area have long questioned the plausibility of Sam's residence, as in, how could a vet and VA counselor afford a townhouse in DC? The answer: roommates.

Jessica did not expect to come down the stairs to find Captain America sitting in her kitchen eating eggs and reading an honest-to-God newspaper. 

“Um, hi?” she definitely says. She does not stutter, and her voice does not go up at least an octave, whatever an octave is. She wasn’t into music as a kid, it’s whatever.

“Hello,” _Captain_ _fucking America_ says in this really nice voice. He’s all golden and shit from the sunlight streaming in from the window and he looks amazing in a tight blue t-shirt and jogging pants. Jessica literally just rolled out of bed and came down for some coffee. She’s wearing a ratty old t-shirt that is definitely not flattering and camo pajama pants. _She hasn’t brushed her hair_.

“You can stop staring any time now, Jess. We don’t need him getting an even bigger head than he’s already got.” And oh, now Captain America is laughing, and Jessica realizes that Sam is here. He’s here and he’s at the counter fixing eggs. For Captain America. And he didn’t warn her.

Sam is going to pay for this one day.

Jessica is the youngest of five and bickering comes naturally to her, so she says, “I’m sorry, since when do you have friends outside the VA, huh? Maybe I thought you kidnapped a national icon and he was just too nice to try to escape from your scrawny ass. God knows I would if rent wasn’t so cheap.”

_ Shit, now Captain America is going to think she’s an asshole. _ She is, but she doesn’t want Captain America to know that.

But he just laughs and shoves the plate of toast in her direction, gesturing for her to sit. It is technically Jessica’s kitchen table, she shouldn’t need to be invited to sit, but she doesn’t care. This is the best moment of her life. She used to read all the Captain America comic books with her brothers, it’s why she wanted to join the Army in the first place, and now the man himself is sitting in her kitchen offering her toast.

“Sam didn't mention he was living with anyone. It’s nice to meet you, Jess.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, uh, sir. Captain. I’m sorry – what should I call you?”

“Steve’s fine.”

She’s on a first-name basis with Captain America.

Jessica decides that Sam’s alright. She doesn’t need to pour out his stupid organic orange juice in retaliation for not telling her there’s a national hero in their kitchen.

Oh, Andre is going to be so pissed that he missed this.

~*~

Andre comes back from the gym seventeen minutes after Captain America – Steve – leaves.  _ He has no idea _ .

Jessica times it perfectly. He’s refilled his water bottle at the kitchen sink and has taken a nice, long drink when Jessica says, “Captain America was in our kitchen this morning. You just missed him.”

Jessica may be an asshole, but she’s not one for pranks so he knows she isn’t bullshitting him, and Andre doesn’t even have the decency to do a spit-take. He chokes a little bit, but it’s nowhere near as satisfying.

Why couldn’t Andre have befriended Captain America? Sam at least would have been more entertaining to drop this bombshell on.

Andre coughs a bit and says, “What the fuck do you mean Captain America was in our kitchen?”

Jessica shrugs. “Sam’s apparently friends with the guy.”

“I thought Sam only picked up strays at the VA.”

“Same. Apparently, we were wrong. He picked this one up running around the Mall.”

“Jesus, I always made fun of him for running around the Mall, but I guess I can’t anymore if he met Captain America being a cliché.”

“Dude, Captain America is kind of a jerk.” Jessica knows she’s smiling a bit manically, but she’s met her hero and it wasn’t even disappointing. She always said there was no way he was such a paragon of nicety and manners and shit – dude was in the Army. “He lapped Sam five times and said ‘on your left’ each time. Sam’s eye did that little twitchy thing like he was trying not to react when Steve was telling the story. It was amazing.”

“Man, I can’t believe you got to meet Captain America. All I got to do was talk to one of Sam’s strays for five minutes,” Andre sighs. “Dude was super squirrelly, wouldn’t even tell me his name. I hope he’s not on something. It’s always harder when they come back addicts.”

Shit, and Jessica was having such a good morning. “Yeah,” she agrees, and goes to hug Andre. Quieter, she adds, “I miss him too.”

They both know they’re thinking about Zach. They don’t talk about it.

~*~

A few days later, Jessica meets Sam’s new stray too.

There’s a reason Andre and Jessica have taken to calling Sam’s “friends” strays. He finds someone at the VA – not in one of his groups, because that would be unethical – who looks lost, generally a bit disheveled, and… well, the best way to describe it is probably guarded, but Jessica’s first instinct says cagey. Like they’ve got something to hide. Jessica usually finds it annoying – most of the people she knows who went over to Iraq or Afghanistan have very similar experiences, so she doesn’t see the reason to hide. She may not be able to say Zach’s name aloud yet without bursting into tears, but she can talk about sleeping on the ground always listening for gunfire, seeing trucks blown up with some of her people inside it, coming back home and fading away instead of coming back to life because life doesn’t feel real after the fight. All of those things are an unfortunate fact of war, and they’ve all been to war.

However, just looking at this guy, she can tell he’s been through more than most. Hell, she feels herself wanting to adopt him a little bit. She’d make a much worse mother hen than Sam, but Sam’s inside and it doesn’t look like this guy is ready for inside. Jessica gets that; even the biggest of enclosed spaces can feel too close sometimes.

She deliberately swings her grocery bags, so they’ll rustle together as she walks towards him. She wants to make sure that there’s at least some part of him that’s aware she’s there, even if he does seem like he’s lost in a memory. Jessica startled Zach once before… before the end, and he was so on edge and so guilty for being on edge afterward, and she really does not want a repeat performance.

Looking up, she aims for a casual  _ hello, _ but it’s hard to be casual when you’re talking to a guy perched in a tree.

He probably has sniper training. Jessica is not going to think about how he’s kind of casing her house.

The guy does not look outwardly startled to be spoken to, but you can tell he’s not used to people talking to him. He doesn’t say anything back, which is fair, she hasn’t even introduced herself.

“I’m Jessica Vasquez. I’m one of Sam’s roommates. I assume you’re looking for Sam? You seem like the type.”

The guy considers her for a long moment. “Yes. I know Sam.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to come inside. Do you want me to tell Sam you’re here?”

“No.”

“Okay. Want to tell me why not? You’re just kind of staring at my house man, and that’s fine, but it’d make me feel a lot better if I knew why you were just looking instead of talking to Sam.”

“Not ready to talk about it. Need to establish security first.”

“Okay, well, it’s just me, Sam, and Andre who live there.” No need to tell him about the Captain America thing yet, that might scare the guy off, and it seems like he really needs to talk to someone. He’s looking at their quiet street like a new war is about to break out any second. “You know Sam, and I think you’ve met Andre, and now you’ve met me. It’s not so bad once you know us, right?”

The guy nods, though it looks like he doesn’t really believe what he’s agreeing to. “There is a fourth individual.”

Okay, that’s seriously creepy, but she finds that she’s still not afraid of this guy – she’s more afraid  _ for _ him. He’s not powerless – Jessica is entirely sure that between the incredibly likely sniper training and the frankly ridiculous amount of muscle she can see under his long-sleeved shirt that he could take down several people without much of a struggle – but there is something about him that is… vulnerable.

“Yeah, sometimes Sam’s friend Steve comes by. He’s a good guy, I wouldn’t worry about him.”

“Your opinion cannot be trusted. You are speaking to me and do not seem afraid, but you should be.”

“Do you want to hurt me?”

“No,” he says quickly, and he seems almost surprised by his own reaction. Poor guy. She’s starting to see why Sam adopts the strays. She wants to help him.

“I didn’t think so. And if you’re not going to hurt me, then I’m not going to be afraid of you.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I might anyway.”

Oh… That’s really sad. It sounds like something really bad happened over there. Whatever it is, tackling that is a job for a real therapist, which Jessica is decidedly not, but she thinks maybe he could use a friend anyway. “Well, the way I see it, that’s just the risk of living. Anything could hurt you, but you have to believe that it won’t if you’re ever going to do anything.” 

There’s a long pause. The stray obviously isn't going to say anything, and she can't just keep calling him _the stray_ in her head. She doesn’t think he will, but Jessica tries anyway. “Want to tell me your name?”

The guy says “no,” but he says it slower than before, almost reluctantly. Jessica will count it as progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: Strays – Part 1  
> Creator(s): aintyouafraid  
> Card number: 014  
> Square filled: A1, outside POV  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27852934  
> Rating: T  
> Archive warnings: N/A  
> Major tags: Outside POV  
> Summary: Jessica's mama always told her not to feed strays, but she can understand why Sam adopted this one. She has no doubt that he could protect himself – Sam adopts war vets after all – but there is something vulnerable about him.  
> Word count: 1667


	2. Part 2

Over the next few weeks, Jessica brings the guy in the tree something every other day or so. He’s not there everyday, and he is very well hidden from their house, but she’ll take a walk just to check on him.

Oh shit, she’s adopting the strays now, too. She’s  _ feeding  _ them, which as everyone’s mama told them, is the number one rule of what not to do with strays. Well, she’s just feeding and adopting this one, so hopefully that’s not too bad.

Usually Jessica brings some kind of snack, mostly fruit but also protein bars, things that are healthy because she’s not sure what he might be eating otherwise. After three of these visits, he tells her to call him J.B. He tells her a little bit more about him each time, carefully rationed out and not very detailed, like that he’s from New York but doesn’t have any close family anywhere, so he just ended up in D.C. He won’t say where he’s staying and he doesn’t have a job – only saying he hated his old job so he’s not working right now – but he doesn’t seem homeless. His clothes are usually rumpled but overall clean and his hair is brushed if a little greasy. Jessica doesn’t want to ask about where he’s living outright, she knows that it can be a sensitive subject for a lot of vets, so the most she can offer is nutritious finger foods. Today she has pilfered some pears that Sam bought and swore he was going to eat but are close to the end of their life as edible food, so he probably won’t say shit that they’re gone because then he’d have to admit that he was never going to eat them in the first place.

So Jessica is chilling across the street from her house eating a pear because Jessica has to eat something to get J.B. to. She thinks it’s because he’s prideful and doesn’t want to take any hand-outs, and hopefully not because he thinks she’s secretly trying to poison him. He seems a little paranoid, but hopefully not that paranoid.

Jessica doesn’t even like pears, so eating one so he will means she’s definitely adopted J.B. as her own personal stray, and Jessica is just trying to decide how she feels about that when she sees J.B. tense up. It’s a small change, probably only noticeable because Jessica has military training and experience with the stillness of snipers, and when she looks back towards her house, the only thing that she can see that’s changed is that Steve is now in the kitchen making eggs while Sam dramatically throws himself over the back of the couch.

Okay, shit. Tread lightly, Jessica. “That’s Steve. Do you recognize him?”

“I knew him,” J.B. says lowly.

“You’ve met Steve before?” Damn, she felt kind of special that she’s met Captain America, but if everyone in DC knows him, it doesn’t feel as cool.

“He was a… friend. My best friend, I think.”

Is J.B. having some sort of psychotic break? Or did he have some sort of friend that looked kind of like Steve Rogers aka Captain America from mid-range?

“That’s Steve Rogers. His best friend was Bucky Barnes, but that was almost seventy years ago.”

Oh damn, J.B. is laughing now, but not in a  _ haha oh, how silly, I saw a famous person from a distance and thought I knew them personally  _ way, more of a… well, more of a psychotic break kind of way, if Jessica is being honest with herself here.

“I knew it had been a long time, but seventy fucking years, huh?”

“Since Captain America went in the ice? We hit seventy years last year I think. But he was thawed out in 2011.”

She’s trying to keep him talking, but she’s also definitely covertly texting Andre to get Sam and get their asses out here. Sam’s probably dead after trying to run with Captain America and wouldn’t even answer even though this is obviously a mental health emergency.

“Ice?” Something changes in J.B.’s face, and now Jessica is getting the bit about being afraid because this blank look is definitely frightening. She thinks he might be dissociating, and that’s when things would get dicey with Zach.

“Yeah, after he crashed the plane into the Arctic Ocean to keep it from hitting New York, the whole thing froze over.”

Just keep talking, Jessica, keep him busy until Sam gets here.

“They looked for him for years, and it was a random research crew that found the plane decades later. Everyone was surprised he survived. Obviously, it was something to do with the serum. Do you not remember any of this?”

“Bucky?”

Jessica is not going to make any sudden movements because that seems like a Bad Idea TM  right about now, especially since J.B., who may in fact be Bucky Barnes –  _ James _ Buchanan Barnes, J.B., it’s honestly not the biggest mental leap she’s made in her life – is making some very sudden movements. None of these movements seem coordinated however, like J.B. can’t decide whether he wants to go towards Steve Rogers and his sad, big, blue eyes or run away from them, so he’s just kind of stuck swaying back and forth perched on one of the bigger branches a few feet higher than his usual.

“Hey, J.B., it’s okay. They just want to help.”

Jessica tucks her phone into her back pocket and slowly raises her hands so they’re in front of her, which is hopefully the universal sign for  _ I am not a threat _ .

“No ice, not going back into the ice, not me, not Steve, no ice,” J.B. is muttering.

Jessica can see his eyes darting between her and three other points of contact, so Andre must have brought the whole calvary. Any other time, that might have been appreciated, but she has a feeling that Steve is going to be the only one who stands a chance because if this is Bucky Barnes, he has to be enhanced because even the best skincare routine cannot keep you looking like you’re thirty if you should be nearly a hundred-years-old.

“Hey, buddy, no one wants anyone to go back on ice, not even in this heat okay. We’re friends, right? We were eating pears together, and a few days ago we had apples, and before that it was those weird protein bars I know you didn’t really like but ate anyway. I’m your friend, or at least I want to be, and as your friend, I promise, none of us are going to hurt you.”

“Jessica,” Andre and Sam start to say at the same time. She keeps her hands raised in front of her, but does turn to glare at them. She may not be trained for emergency mental health care and she may be standing very close to an unstable vet who has cornered himself in a tree, and maybe it’s a stupid idea to try, but she thinks she can get him to come down. He’s just afraid. She can handle one of her friends being afraid.

Consciously not making it a command, Jessica says, “J.B., can you please look at me?”

J.B. focuses on her, eyes wide and wild.

“What can I do to help you feel more safe?”

“Safe?”

And damn this white boy for breaking her heart, because it sounds like he has no idea what that even means. Which, if he really is Bucky Barnes, then considering he may very well have been a prisoner of war for a truly unimaginable number of years, that makes sense.

Jessica is about to suggest that they all just sit down right there on the sidewalk and J.B. on his tree branch, but then Steve, Captain fucking America, is darting past her and climbing into the tree. Poor tree, it really isn’t big enough for either one of them, but both of them? She’s surprised it doesn’t snap. The mental imagery of two grown ass men falling out of a tree is hilarious though, and she has to try not to laugh. Laughing seems like a good way to make the situation worse somehow.

Still, Jessica turns around to see what Sam and Andre are doing, and sees that Sam looks a little surprised but not really shocked like she expected.

She backs up, dropping her hands to her sides, and slowly turns away from the two men in a relatively tiny suburban tree. Well, big for the suburbs, but small for a climbing tree. “You knew about this?” she hisses at Sam. First he springs Captain America on her, and now Bucky Barnes?

“Well, remember how DC kind of exploded while you were gone? That was kind of him. It’s… a long story,” Sam sighs. “But Steve thinks Bucky’s still in there somewhere and it’s looking more and more like that might be the case.”

“I would assume it’s a long story, since Bucky Barnes was presumed dead in 1945 and it’s 2015! You could give a girl a heads up though!”

“I thought we’d have more time. I didn’t expect him to come back, I thought we’d have to hunt him down. He was completely brainwashed seven weeks ago!”

“Well, he’s been hanging outside of our house for the past three! Andre and I thought he was one of your strays! What the fuck, I’ve been casually chatting it up with Bucky Barnes while he sits in a tree.”

“You’ve been out here for weeks, Buck?”

Jessica whips around, and there Steve is on one of the lower branches, hand extended to where J.B. is perched above him, whole body facing J.B. like he’s the sun, and J.B. isn’t any better, his whole body focused on Steve even as he carefully holds himself just out of reach. She was whisper-yelling to Sam, but Steve definitely heard her very clearly, and she’s not sure how J.B. will respond to other people knowing about his lurking.

“Yes.”

Okay, monosyllabic responses are kind of standard with J.B. and it’s very hard to read his tone, but he isn’t pulling a gun or putting Steve in a chokehold, so Jessica is going to say this is going rather well.

“Okay. Um...” Jessica doesn’t think she’s ever heard Captain America sound hesitant. It’s kind of sweet. “Can I ask why?”

“Had to assess surroundings, monitor for threats, but maintain distance.”

“Hydra’s gone, Bucky. They can’t hurt you again. I won’t let them hurt you again. You can come home. I’ll help you, it’ll be okay. My turn for a change, huh?”

“No. Not Hydra, me. I’m a threat. I hurt people, I hurt  _ you _ .”

And Jessica knows she doesn’t have the full picture, but the desperation in J.B.’s voice and the way he’s curling into himself… something bad definitely happened, and it’s causing J.B. to get distressed, she can hear it in his voice even if he’s hardly moved since Steve climbed into the tree with him. And Jessica knows very well that things can go south very quickly, because whenever Zach felt cornered and scared he would lash out, unable to tell friend from foe, and she knows now that J.B. is a much bigger threat than Zach ever was. 

“It’s okay, Bucky,” Steve murmurs, incredibly soft, and it feels like they’re intruding on a very important moment even though they are in the middle of a residential street at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. “I know you didn’t want to, and I’m here now and no one’s getting hurt, right? So can you come inside so we can talk somewhere a little more private and a little less… well, tree.”

J.B. hesitates, flicking his eyes towards the house, like he’s conflicted. Jessica can see on Steve’s face that he’d be crushed if J.B. left now, and she gets that so much. If Zach showed up right now, somehow came back from the dead, no matter how broken or fucked up, she would do anything to get him to stay. And Jessica thinks of how much she would have to tell Zach and it’s only been seven months, not seventy years, and how Steve and Bucky would have even more. She thinks that they both deserve this, they both deserve to be happy, and maybe it’s selfish, maybe it’s out of her own fucked up history with her own dead best friend, but she wants both of them to be happy.

So before J.B. or Bucky is able to say anything, she says, “We can all go upstairs and you two can have the kitchen, keep the sliding door and all the windows open. It feels less closed in that way.”

J.B. looks at her again, evaluating, but after a handful of seconds, he maybe even smiles a bit, just a slight quirk on one side of his mouth, and nods. “Okay,” he says, still looking at her. “Okay,” he repeats quietly, turning his full focus to Steve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: Strays – Part 2  
> Creator(s): aintyouafraid  
> Card number: 014  
> Square filled: D3, reunion  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27852934  
> Rating: T  
> Archive warnings: N/A  
> Major tags: Outside POV  
> Summary: Jessica's mama always told her not to feed strays, but she can understand why Sam adopted this one. She has no doubt that he could protect himself – Sam adopts war vets after all – but there is something vulnerable about him.  
> Word count: 2207


	3. Part 3

Jessica is not saying she has regrets, because she doesn’t. She has helped two people who very obviously need each other in their lives reconnect. Sure, she didn’t know what she was doing ninety percent of the time and it was very nearly a clusterfuck, but it turned out alright.

So Jessica does not have regrets, but she does have… some concerns.

Basically, Steve’s apartment was SHIELD-funded and now there is no more SHIELD, ergo Steve was in search of a place to stay after the whole destruction of half of DC debacle while he figured out what to do next. And after about a week of Steve living in a crappy motel, they had a house meeting and Sam being a very giving person and Jessica and Andre suffering from hero worship, agreed that Steve could stay in their guest room, which was very tiny and only had a full bed and a modest dresser.

Which was all fun and relatively normal, she, Sam, and Andre are three elder millennials sharing a townhouse in DC only by virtue of their current jobs and pensions. And while it was absolutely insane that J.B. was Bucky Barnes, it was totally normal for him and Steve to be a little clingy – okay, basically inseparable – after their discussion in the kitchen, it did get a little weird when Sam offered to fix up the couch or get the air mattress to add to the aforementioned small guest room and Steve looked at Bucky and they had some silent conversation that concluded with Steve saying that they’re fine to bunk together.

Jessica side-eyes Sam, but he just shakes his head at her, a not-so-subtle  _ leave it alone, Vasquez _ .

Okay, sharing a bed isn’t that weird, probably. Jessica has done it with friends at sleepovers completely platonically, and while she doesn’t know any dudes who do that now, it was probably more common and acceptable back when Steve and Bucky were kids, what with the lack of resources in the Great Depression and them growing up and then somehow skipping the weird conservatism of the fifties. 

So Jessica shrugs it off initially. It was just one thing after all. But they have three weeks after Bucky moves in to establish a routine. Steve and Sam go for stupidly early runs, but they are gracious enough to start the coffee, so several minutes after they leave, Jessica drags herself out of bed to get coffee and sets herself up at the table. Andre stumbles out of his room about a minute later and does the same. In another thirty minutes, Steve and Sam come back from their run, trying to be quiet but pushing at each other like rambunctious puppies, which inevitably rouses Bucky from bed as he consistently enters the kitchen another two minutes after that with his hair even more fucked than Jessica’s and even less functional than Andre without a cup of coffee. Sam gets the first cup from the fresh pot Jessica makes then Steve gets one for himself, black, and another for Bucky that is more cream and sugar than coffee itself.

None of Jessica’s friends have gotten her a cup of coffee two days in a row, let alone for three weeks.

It is highly suspicious when you add the sleeping together and the consistent acts of service or gifts of coffee or whatever is going on there with the way that they have entire conversations without saying a word and literally cannot be more than three feet away from each other at any given time – seriously, Jessica saw Steve coming out of the bathroom at the same time as Bucky after he had showered, and when she asked what’s wrong, he just looked adorably confused and told her that he was just sitting on the floor so they could keep talking  _ while Bucky showered _ .

It’s not like any of them were not going to turn Captain America and his surprisingly alive and very traumatized friend out onto the streets when there were still some questions as to whether one or both of them may be tried for treason under some truly extraordinary and extenuating circumstances. But living with a couple in the midst of their (second?) honeymoon is a lot for anyone, especially single people who want a relationship but are currently feeling very limited by the dating scene in a half-demolished city. If Jessica has to see Steve fixing Bucky’s hair for him one more time after giving Bucky his coffee and looking all fond when he grunts and drinks it, she is going to scream in romantic frustration.

Naturally, she tells Andre about her troubles. Also naturally, Andre laughs at her.

Jessica smacks him in the face with one of his own pillows. “You dick! Quit laughing at me, there’s no way that you are not picking up on this vibe.”

“Oh yeah, they act like a couple of teenagers in their first relationship,” Andre says. “But they’re like almost a hundred years old. I just imagine them like my nan and pop. It’s sweet.”

“They may technically be a hundred, but they are also in like their thirties or something. It’s confusing, but whatever! My point is I don’t even think they realize that this is like… potentially romantic behavior. Maybe it isn’t, they could be dudes who are just really into platonic cuddling, but… I think they like each other and just don’t know that they’re basically dating.”

“Just without the sex.”

Jessica scoffs. “You can date without having sex, Andre.”

“True, but can you date without having intent? I feel like that’s harder.”

“Point. But seriously, what should we do?”

“I don’t know that we  _ do  _ anything. They’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Andre, it’s been seventy years. If they haven’t figured it out by now, I don’t know that they ever will.”

Andre sighs and reaches out to ruffle her hair, but Jessica smacks him away before he can. “Just let it go, Jess.”

~*~

Jessica tries, she really does, but five days later, she sees Bucky half sitting on top of Steve, arms wrapped around his neck, and Steve is feeding him bites of a cookie one by one, and she cannot take this anymore.

“Okay, I said I wouldn’t, but it’s been a month and I can’t do it,” Jessica says, and neither Steve nor Bucky flinch because they are trained supersoldiers who knew she was there the entire time and were doing sappy shit anyway. “Are you two dating? If not, you should really consider it because this,” she says, gesturing at where they’re wrapped up together. “This is dating behavior.”

Steve flushes bright red and sputters a bit, but Bucky doesn’t even blink, just cocks his head to the side and grins just a little bit at Steve.

Steve wraps his hands around Bucky’s middle and looks like he’s trying to lift him off, but Bucky just winds his arms tighter around him.

“Bucky?”

“Steve?” Bucky replies placidly.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying not to let you be an idiot.”

“Huh?”

“You’re gonna try to convince me that there’s nothing there, but it’s the future Steve, we’ve seen queer fellas in half the movies we’ve watched, it’s fine. And if you say some dumb shit about me needing time to recover, I will shoot you again. I’ve always been my best when I’m with you pal, and just because my brain’s a little fried and I might be a fugitive doesn’t mean that ain’t true. Also stop thinking you know what’s best for everyone and let me make my own damn decisions.”

Jessica sees Steve relax his hands a bit, and he’s staring at Bucky like he thinks he’s dreaming. “Bucky–” he starts, but Bucky cuts him off.

“We can drop it if you don’t feel the same way, but I want to if you do.”

“If I do? Buck, I’ve been half in love with you since I was sixteen.”

“Only half?”

Jessica throws up in her mouth a little and takes that as her cue to leave. She passes Andre in the hallway on the way to her room and says, “I wouldn’t go in the living room for a while.”

“Why?”

“I am the best wingwoman ever and there may be making out occurring on our couch right now and so help me, Andre, if you fuck this up for them, I will end you. My job is done here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: Strays – Part 3  
> Creator(s): aintyouafraid  
> Card number: 014  
> Square filled: C5, didn't know they were dating  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27852934  
> Rating: T  
> Archive warnings: N/A  
> Major tags: Outside POV  
> Summary: Jessica's mama always told her not to feed strays, but she can understand why Sam adopted this one. She has no doubt that he could protect himself – Sam adopts war vets after all – but there is something vulnerable about him.  
> Word count: 1416


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